25 Facts About World War 1

I thought maybe most of you would like something for remembrance day. Here are a few facts about World War 1 and the reason behind the day where we all share a minute of silence.

1 – Definition: World War 1 was a military conflict lasting from 1914 to 1918 which involved nearly all the biggest powers of the world

2 – World War 1 involved 2 opposing alliances – the Allies and the Central Powers

3 – The countries of the Allies included Russia, France, British Empire, Italy, United States, Japan, Rumania, Serbia, Belgium, Greece, Portugal and Montenegro

4 – The countries of the Central Powers included Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria

5 – World War 1 was triggered on 28 June 1914 by the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his pregnant wife Sophie

6- Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was the nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and heir to the throne of Austria and Hungary

7 – The assassination took place in in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina

8 – Theassassination was planned by a Serbian terrorist group, called The Black Hand and the man who shot Franz Ferdinand and his wife was a Bosnian revolutionary named Gavrilo Princip

9 – Causes of World War 1:

There was a tangle of alliances made between countries, to maintain a balance of power in Europe, which brought about the scale of the conflict

Bosnian Crisis – Austria-Hungary took over the former Turkish province of Bosnia in 1909 angering Serbia

Countries were building their military forces, arms and battleships

Countries wanted to regain lost territories from previous conflicts and build empires

Moroccan Crisis – Germans were protesting in 1911 against the French possession of Morocco

10 – Major Leaders of World War 1 included Kaiser Wilhelm II, Tsar Nicholas II, Prince Alexander of Serbia, Sir Edward Grey British Foreign Secretary, President Wilson U.S. President, H. H. Asquith and David Lloyd George

11 – WW1 included the first known use of chemical weapons (mustard Gas)

12 – The sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 bought the US into the war

13 – US entered the war on April 6, 1917

14 – 65 million troops were mobilized during WW1

15 – more than 9 million troops died

16 – more than 21 million troops were wounded

17 – 58,000 British soldiers were lost on the first day at the Battle of the Somme

18 – Other names for World War 1 include ‘The War to End All Wars’, The War of the Nations and ‘The Great War’

19 – By the end of the war there were 250,000 wounded British soldiers who suffered total or partial amputation

20 – The U.S. was in the war in actual combat for only seven and a half months during which time 116,000 were killed and 204,000 were wounded.

21 – During the course of the War War 1 approx 11% of Frances’s entire population was killed or wounded.

22 – Battle of Verdun, 1916, resulted in over a million casualties in ten months.